Machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions are increasing in popularity. M2M can for example be used to collect data from M2M devices in various locations to an M2M application running centrally. For example, a sensor, such as an electricity meter, thermometer, or drink machine stock sensor can be used to collect data from M2M devices to an M2M application.
M2M devices communicate with an M2M core network using a wireless transceiver. The wireless transceiver can be included in the M2M device itself, or in an M2M gateway, which serves as wireless communication means for one or more M2M devices.
With M2M devices increasing in numbers, there will be a greater risk of such devices being tampered with or even stolen.
WO 2009/092115 discloses a method and apparatus for performing secure Machine-to-Machine (M2M) provisioning and communication. It is disclosed various events to detect tampering of M2M enabled equipment (M2ME). These events include (1) remediable and/or un-remediable compromise of the OS by malware or viruses; (2) buffer overflow events; (3) sudden unexpected or unauthorized changes in radio or higher-layer connectivity characteristics and/or environmental readings; (4) excessively repeated failure and/or denial of access or service by trusted network elements for the M2ME's requests for preliminary authentication, registration, or MID provisioning; or (5) any unexpected/unauthorized change in a post-boot or run-time reading of ‘trust state’ of the M2ME 110 or M2ME subsystem relating to remote MID (manageable identities) management functionality. However, it is not disclosed how to detect stolen or misplaced M2M devices.
It is thus desired to provide a way to not only detect physical displacement of transceivers in an M2M system, but also provide such detection in an efficient way, especially for M2M systems with a vast number of M2M devices.